Dog in fatal attack on woman shot to death

By Cindy Horswell |
July 2, 2013
| Updated: July 3, 2013 1:35am

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The wounded stray dog that killed a 63-year-old Liberty County woman who had adopted him was shot to death on Tuesday night.

For nearly two days, the mixed breed had eluded deputies who responded to more than a dozen sightings in the Woodland Hills subdivision near Dayton where the attack occurred. Deputies had also followed a bloody trail left by the dog because of a bullet that left a flesh wound in his neck from an earlier encounter with deputies.

A deputy fired three shots at the dog when he twice charged him and an emergency medical technician that had gone to the woman's home to check on her welfare.

"The dog had yelped but had still been able to escape under the fence and flee after he was wounded that first time," said Liberty County sheriff's Capt. Ken DeFoor.

Deputies and constables then mounted a massive search for the dog which was deemed a threat to the community.

The victim, Linda Oliver, was known as an animal lover who often rescued abandoned pets. She had started feeding the hungry stray after it wandered into her yard about two weeks ago, authorities said.

The stray had turned on Oliver when she tried to stop it from attacking her small brown wiener dog, which suffered deep lacerations on its throat, investigators said.

After being badly injured by the stray, Oliver crawled from her front yard into her house on County Road 648. She managed to call her husband, who was working in Pearland, before passing out.

Her husband, Leland, alerted authorities and was still talking to the 911 operator when investigators arrived at the scene, fended off two charges by the dog and then discovered Oliver dead on the living room floor.

Jittery neighbors expressed relief when word spread the animal had been shot.